Taiwan is known the world over for the foundry manufacturing of 3C products. Many Taiwanese manufacturers, with sufficient industry know-how and in-depth production technologies, are investigating smart manufacturing. Their goal is to enhance competitiveness through new manufacturing models and digitalization. Delta's Electronics Assembly Solution Business Department (EASBD) is following the trends that are transforming manufacturing as it supports customers in the electronics industries.
Mr. Yuren Chen, system engineering service assistant manager of the EASBD, indicated that electronics assembly is a special field that requires more than AI and IIoT solutions. Experts with real implementation experience are the key to successfully building smart manufacturing.
Internal Motivation and External Challenges Boost Factory Digitalization
Over the past few years, the manufacturing industry has faced the impact of higher customer demands, labor shortages, trade wars, and more. These challenges present both internal and external issues.
The recent trade war, for instance, is one of the biggest external issues causing major changes in manufacturer strategies, such as more decentralized and localized production. However, factory relocation presents difficulties due to geographical, cultural, and infrastructure differences. The result is poor duplication of production modes that causes production line expansion delays and decreased productivity.
Labor shortage issues are driving factory digitalization as well. The continuous decline in fertility rates in Taiwan and many other countries has caused severe labor shortages. The unreliable quality of manual processing is also a major reason for low productivity, especially for electronics assembly.
To overcome external and internal challenges, the electronics assembly industry requires automated production solutions and standardized production modes for the precise processing of complex workpiece assembly. It is undeniable that manual operators are still needed for certain processes given the current technology and equipment. The most practical and suitable solution seems to be human-machine collaboration for smooth process operation and consistent good quality.
3 Key Factors of Factory Digitalization
“You can certainly digitize your factory without 100% automation,” said Yuren. “Considering today's intense market competition, the demand for digitalized and smart production in the electronics assembly industry is greater than ever .” Many manufacturers realize the importance of factory digitalization, which has helped to bring about remote monitoring and management and a rapid changeover during the recent coronavirus pandemic. As the manufacturing market is expecting a boost after the pandemic, many companies are preparing by implementing smart equipment and solutions and digitalizing their production lines and factories. They are hoping to shorten recovery time and minimize the gap between market needs and productivity. This also helps to reduce the impact of labor shortages and factory relocations.
Delta is an electronics company that started with electronics assembly, and has accumulated decades of experience in manufacturing automation and digitalization. As a provider and also as a user of smart manufacturing solutions, Delta points to three key factors for building a digitalized smart factory:
1. Evaluate and set ROI (return on investment)
2. Integrate OT (operational technology) and IT (information technology)
3. Time the implementation
Of the three factors, integrating OT and IT is the most difficult in terms of time and money. Delta's EASBD is keenly focused on this part and has launched specific solutions.
Seamless Integration of OT and IT Based on Delta's Experience
When it comes to OT and IT integration, Delta's greatest advantages are abundant domain know-how, vigorous R&D capabilities, and real application experience in various fields. Yuren indicated, “As a user, Delta's solutions for electronics assembly were designed based on real practice and user needs. This allows us to bring more suitable and value-added solutions for customers compared to many system integrators.”
Delta's electronics assembly solutions cover OT and IT. For OT, Delta's smart equipment features real-time and in-time functions. The real-time functions include monitoring, self-control, self-tuning, self-adjusting, quality inspection and sortation, and the in-time functions cover alarms, auto-changeover, preventive maintenance, fault shutdown and diagnosis. All the data generated is transmitted between equipment for inter-communication under an equipment networking architecture, bringing flexible production and fast changeover according to work orders. The equipment for OT is often connected to IT platforms, such as manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), for seamless date exchange and analysis. This is the essence of smart manufacturing.
As a leading supplier of power supplies, Delta is also well-known for its industrial automation products, such as AC motor drives, servo systems, industrial controllers, HMIs, industrial robots, and others. All of these Delta products are self-developed and produced. For over a decade, Delta has accumulated a broad range of experience through field applications. In 2016, Delta merged Unicom, a well-known factory management platform and automation integration software supplier in Taiwan, to better achieve OT and IT integration and factory digitalization. With the robust R&D capability and in-depth experience of both Delta and Unicom, Delta can now provide the electronics assembly industry with various customer-oriented smart solutions, as well as the best service for diagnosis, implementation, integration and maintenance.
Thorough Diagnosis for Accurate Planning of Smart Solutions and Factory Digitalization
“In terms of OT and IT integration and solution implementation execution, Delta's valuable experience can definitely help customers,” said Ian Yang, Marketing Director of the EASBD. According to Ian, enterprises need to clearly identify the key ROI index and timeline for implementation before actual execution, and it is crucial at this phase to have experts for diagnosis and pain point identification. Delta's team can help with the on-site diagnosis and design new systems accordingly, as well as plan the implementation schedule and forecast the ROI for the company.
Delta also provides smart equipment which applies a modular architecture for easy connection. This design allows fast production system building according to customer needs while shortening implementation time. This is a very different but also an advanced and highly efficient approach compared to traditional ways of customization.
To manufacturers of electronics assembly, stability, intelligence and feasibility are crucial for greater competitiveness of the industry. The benefits above must be achieved through customized smart solutions that initiate successful factory digitalization. Delta's solid experience in this field and smart solutions and equipment can help all customers quickly step into the new era of digitalization and bring about “Smarter & Greener Manufacturing for a Changing World!”